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Topic starter
2020-03-20 7:21 pm
With every project I learn more and more about what I don't know yet! I'm building a project that needs to trigger a loud horn based on user input. I have all the user input stuff worked out but I'm trying to find a horn that is LOUD! So I purchased a car horn and read that it requires 12 volts. I added up a bunch of AA batteries together, got 12 volts, connected them to the horn and..... nada. Clearly I didn't read the manual on current. So this post has multiple questions.
First - Here is a link to the horn I purchased. What should I have looked at to know what I need to power it?
https://www.amazon.com/gp/product/B01C8F0AUY/ref=ppx_yo_dt_b_asin_title_o02_s00?ie=UTF8&psc=1
Second - I'm still in need of a loud horn for this project. Any suggestions other then me finding a basic batter powered bike horn and refitting it for my needs?
Thank you again for all the advice and support!
2020-03-20 9:16 pm
These are car replacement horns. So looking at typical wattage values they could be ballpark 4-6 amps each. I believe a common car horn fuse is 20 amp so it is under 10 amp each most likely. You can see if you find the part at the Hella site for power rating or hook one up to a car battery and measure current. And it may not *require* 12V but would drop in sound power as voltage decreases from 12V. There would be a lower voltage limit where it won't work at all which I have no idea what that would be.
2020-03-21 12:29 am
I took a look at the Ebay info, they dont offer the info required. What you want to look for is amperage drawn or watts used when operating. and... nope 11 AA batteries wont supply the amperage required, it will have the volts, but not the amps... try 4 Lithium 18650s in series, that should give you enuf ooomf to make it work a few times.
Topic starter
2020-03-21 12:57 am
I think I'll bag that horn and pick up this one. It will work much better with the power that I plan to use in this project -> https://www.amazon.com/gp/product/B079L2KBG7/ref=ox_sc_act_title_2?smid=A1J90DLMJQS3GD&psc=1
Topic starter
2020-03-25 3:27 pm
I just wanted to close this one up. I bought that other alarm that I linked above and wow it's loud! It's basically part of a home alarm system and those bad boys make some serious noise. It works from 3 - 12 volts and as the voltage rises so does the volume. Honestly, I'll send at most 5 volts to this thing and have a POT on it to control the volume because it is just to loud. Anyway, if you do need a loud alarm for a project I can totally recommend this one!